We're excited to be kicking off Season 31 of the Sun Belt conference which features a mixture of coaches both new and old. Dynasties are starting to develop and rivalries are beginning to take shape. Will Louisiana be able to defend their crown or will Old Dominion making the sneaky offseason hire rise to power?
The SBC has sent a team to the CFP the past two seasons and looks to continue that trend again this year as they establish themselves as THE power G5 conference.
SBC East Division:
Appalachian State - NCSUholmey
The man, the myth, the legend himself. He really needs no introduction but if you’re new here it’s good to know that Holmey is the one who keeps the lights on. While it’s true that he is the technology behind the league, he can also spin the ball pretty well too. He’s played in every single season since the inception of the NDL and currently sports an overall record of 198-209. This is his third straight season with Appalachian State as he lies in wait to draft his beloved Wolfpack. Holmey finished 9-4 in the league last year with a share of the East Division title. He looks to build on that record this year and challenge for the overall SBC Conference Championship and a spot potentially in the CFP.
Coastal Carolina – BigBrian
Big Brian is a back and ready to leady Coastal Carolina again for the second time in his young NDL carer. Brian joined the NDL midseason last year and took over the Chanticleers and their eye searing teal field. Their uniform game is on point though and clearly was a big driver in Brian choosing to run it back with Coastal Carolina. He went 2-6 last year with the Chants but was competitive in his games and looks to increase that win total this year after getting more comfortable with his roster.
Georgia Southern – Big_red1300
Please join me in welcoming Big_red1300 to the league. Red is new to the league this year and will take over a Georgia Southern team that featured the top RB in the league last season. Last year Jalen White amassed over 2,500 yards from scrimmage as he ran over, around and through SBC defense. Red may be new to the league, but he’s got the weapon to make a splash from day one.
Georgia State – Toro
Gone but not for long is the theme with our next coach Toro. Another coach that is coming back to the SBC this year after being here last season. Toro is taking over a new team in Georgia State after coaching Old Dominion and their power run game last season. Toro decided to enter the draft and took a team with a little bit more firepower that should allow him to open up the offense and put some more points on the board. Atlanta is a tough market to draw a crowd to for games, but we expect Toro to get things going in the right direction for the Panthers.
James Madison – mcx79
Entering his 23rd season in the NDL, mcx is returning to the SBC for his second straight year of coaching James Madison. It was an up and down season for the Dukes last year as they finished 3-9 overall. While they scheduled tough OOC, they were extremely competitive in conference finishing with a 3-5 mark that could have easily been 5-3 with the ball breaking the right way. We expect mcx to get more comfortable with his team down the stretch as he settled into the roster so we should see that standard year 2 jump here as we move into a new dynasty in Harrisonburg.
Marshall – Sgt_Lingus330
Welcome back to Sgt Lingus as he enters his second stint in the Sun Belt by taking over the Thundering Herd. Sarge, as his players call him, is entering his third season in the NDL and is brining his playbook back to the SBC after coaching an interim stint with Old Dominion in Season 29 where he went 2-4 over the back half of the season. With this move, he’s inheriting a much better team on paper than he had at either Old Dominion or last season with Louisiana Tech. Marshall is fresh off an appearance in the SBC title game and looking to keep that positive movement going forward this year. The fans in Huntington love a winner and will expect the Sarge to lead them on to victory over rivals App State and Old Dominion.
Old Dominion – MarionCounty
Coach MC has looked very good in the preseason springing quite a few notable upsets in scrimmages to put the rest of the SBC on notice. That should not be surprising as he sports a 77-22 overall record over two separate stints in the NDL that has seen him win 1 NDL Cup Championship with Miami and an undefeated season with Navy. Marion is the Vegas favorite to win the SBC East and will attempt to do so in style with the freshest set of uniform options in the league and possibly even the country.
SBC West Division:
Arkansas State: Ickglokmah
Coach Ickglockmah is new to the NDL after joining Tennessee at the tail end of season 30. This will be his first year coaching a full season and he’s picked a talented SBC team to start out with. The Red Wolves have some of the best offensive talents in the league, so we expect to see Coach putting up some big numbers once conference play hits. This could be one of our dark horse contenders if the coaching can match the talent on the roster.
Louisiana – SuddenBlues
Sudden is entering his 23rd season in the NDL this year and sports an overall record of 146-183 during his tenure. Even though he has never spent more than 2 years with a team and has coached in 9 different conferences, this will be his first time ever taking on the SBC landscape. He picked a doozy of a team to coach for the first time as the Cajuns are the defending SBC champ and are fresh of a 13-1 season that saw them go undefeated in the regular season and reach the 1st round of the CFP before losing to South Carolina. Sudden’s got the experience and the roster to make another run with Cajuns depending on how the new competition stacks up around the league.
Louisiana Monroe – Triplesteezed
Triple enters the year taking over the other SBC power from Season 30 and has high expectations after going 7-5 at Washington State during his first season in the NDL. Louisiana Monroe had their single best season in their NDL history last year by winning 10+ games for the first time ever and finishing ranked 25th with a 12-1 record. Their only blemish was to in-state rival Louisiana and that looks like it could be their top competition this year. Based off the limited sample size, Vegas likes Louisiana Monroe as the early betting favorite this year to win the SBC West. There are a lot of unknowns in this division with multiple new coaches so the confidence level on that pick is not as strong as we’d like. We’ll reassess in a few weeks once we have tape on all contenders to review.
South Alabama – AwesomeAndrewYa
Coach Andrew is entering his 3rd season in the NDL and second full season after taking over Oklahoma State late in season 29. Overall, his NDL record during that time is 7-12 however it’s hard to take much from that as he was rewarded for going 3-1 in the Big 12 with Oklahoma State with a job in Kennesaw, GA coaching the Kennesaw State Owls. The Owls have easily the worst roster in the country so going 4-8 there may be better than it looks. We’ll see this year if he can get back to his winning ways as a he takes over a talented South Alabama squad that challenged for the SBC title in Season 29. The level of talent needed is there to overtake the Louisiana schools, but will the coach be able to harness it and pull off some upsets like he did in Stillwater?
Southern Miss – Sauxy
Breaking news here but Southern Miss has found their man and has announced that newcomer to the NDL, Coach Sauxy, has agreed to take the Eagles job and lead them in to Season 31. While he’s missed most of fall practice due to contract negotiations, he hopes to hit the ground running and get his system installed before week 1 opens up on Saturday. It’s a big ask but Southern Miss has the tradition to be one of those schools that could grasp such a quick move and be in a good place to be competitive immediately. The Eagles have had 5 seasons of 10+ wins in the past 8 NDL seasons and are one of the few programs in the league to sport an all-time winning record. Souther Miss hopes Sauxy can get them back to their most recent winning ways which saw them go 12-2 in Season 29 with an SBC division and conference title.
Texas State – RanDawg
RanDawg is entering his second season in the SBC at the helm of Texas State. He is coming off a season that saw him go 4-8 overall but 4-4 in conference play. Ran is a long term NDL coach and has an interesting stat to his name which is that he has only played with 3 teams over his 27 season NDL career. He’s also never coached a school outside of the state of Texas. His resume includes coaching 23 seasons at Houston over two separate dynasties, 2 seasons at Rice and his 2 most recent seasons at Texas State. He has an overall record of 253-132 and looks to bring those winning ways back to Texas State in year two as he is more familiar with the roster and the lay of the land in the SBC.
Troy – DIRK X BIRD
We have another new addition to the NDL taking over the Trojans in Coach Dirk. We don’t have any game film on the new leader of Troy so it’s hard to assess where they will fall this year, but he’s got plenty of talent to coach up and the uniform game to look good regardless of the results on the field. Troy has gone 15-11 over the past two seasons so the expectation of any new coach is that you should have a winning record here. If that doesn’t happen, the fans of Troy are more than willing to ship you off to your next destination in the season 32 draft.
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